Here’s a long update. I was getting kicked out of my previous garage, so I spent 1-2 weeks after East Coast Bash moving to a new place. Then, I went through the car and made sure everything was good for XDC. I put all the fiberglass on finally, but I didn’t have time to paint it. I left on Thursday and got to West Virginia without issue. Friday was practice and qualifying. The first practice I pretty much sucked and tried to link the course. Summit Point’s main course speeds up a lot at the end, so I have to make the terrible 3-4 upshift about halfway through the course. I kept getting wonky after the upshift since I suck at driving with one hand and kept being scared I’d accidentally shift to 2nd.

I noticed while going down the straight the car was super twitchy. Like I would turn the steering wheel one degree and the car would shoot to one side all crazy. I had to add more camber to the front before the event because the front tires were not fitting in the fenders, and I didn’t check toe afterwards. So I just toed in the front like 1/2 turn of the tie rods, which made it steer normal again. The second and third practices were better, and I linked the course several times. Petty yelled at me to get closer to the clips and to go faster, so I did more of that.

The last practice I focused on getting lots of speed for the entry, since the judges put an emphasis on that. At the end of the session, as I was coming off the track, the motor started stumbling and died like it was out of fuel. After a couple of tries, it started up and ran normal. I put 5 gallons in the cell (8 gallon cell) afterwards and it still had some room, so I figured it may have just been too low on fuel and had uncovered the pickup.

My first qualifying lap was decent. I didn’t go crazy but just tried to link the course. A lot of people were struggling getting through it, so I thought a solid run would at least get me somewhere in 10-16 position. The second run I tried to be much more aggressive and had an awesome run going until the halfway point where I made the upshift. I was going way faster than my other runs and ended up dropping 3 wheels off and nearly killing myself. So the first run would have to count. When results were announced, I thought I hadn’t qualified after they announced 10th place or so. But I ended up getting 3rd with highest entry speed… 80mph. I was really surprised but happy that I did well relative to others.

On Saturday, we had a one hour tandem practice session in the morning. There was traffic for miles going to the track, and I got stuck like a mile away with 10 minutes before practice. So I grabbed my suit and shoes and ran a mile to the track, and Chip drove my truck in. It sucked a ton. In practice, I tried to follow as much as possible to see how people were driving but really only got like 3 follow runs since everyone was overheating and didn’t want to run.

For first round, I went against Zach in the 3rd gen camaro. His car was faster than I thought. We were actually really close on speed and running exactly the same tires, so it was pretty easy tandeming with him. It was probably the cleanest tandem run I had, and I advanced.

For top 8, I went against Justin Tuerck. He had transmission issues so didn’t have 3rd gear. I didn’t really know what to expect. On the lead run, I had a decent pass and could see that I put a big distance on him. On the follow run, I guess he was staying in 2nd gear the entire track, so it was super slow. I had to straighten because I couldn’t follow him at such a slow speed. We got a OMT. Again, my lead run was decent and I put a lot of distance on him. On the follow run, I tried to stay back at the entry so I wouldn’t get too close and straighten. But somehow, I couldn’t manage that, and I was right on him at the carousel again. I e-braked/clutch kicked the crap out of the car to try to keep drifting. Before the last corner he tried to shift from 2nd to 4th and I think missed the gear or bogged because he totally stopped and I nearly ran into him. We both straightened at that point. I got the win from that one.

Next, I went against Steve Angerman. The Solstice was pretty fast, but luckily he didn’t blow me away down the straight because he wasn’t entering full throttle. I don’t really remember what happened with our first set of runs… haha. I think he had the advantage after leading, but maybe he was kind of sketchy behind me, so we got a OMT. On his lead run, he overshot the first turn going in the dirt, and I passed him and finished the run. On my lead run, I just tried to take it easy and not screw up since I had big advantage. He must have been inches behind me the whole time, because all I could see was Solstice the couple of times I glanced in the mirror, but I got the win.

Next was the final against Doug Van Den Brink. I was pretty surprised and just happy to be in the final, so I wasn’t taking it too seriously. Doug led first and must have gotten a 10 car lead before the first turn. I closed up maybe like 3 car lengths on the entry making it about a 7-car lead… lol. I got sort of wonky because I timed my upshift crappy trying hard to catch up, so the second half of the run was shaky and I was a mile behind. So I come back around and sit at the start line waiting and my car starts to stumble again like the day before and then just stalls. I tried turning the ignition on and off. The fuel pump was running but making some retarded noises. I could start the car, but it would just die after a couple of seconds. I knew it wasn’t out of fuel because I filled it completely before the top 16. I thought the pump was dead. So I had to forfeit. After they towed me down to the track to hand out the trophies, I tried starting it again to go back to the pits, and it started right up like normal. Sweet.

So I need to do something about this fuel system. It’s done this 3 times total since I’ve had it… once in December when I first tested and then the two times this weekend. It will just not pick up fuel for a few minutes and then works fine. Maybe the pump is getting super hot causing vapor lock? Also thinking my supply line to the pump might be too small, so it’s having to work hard to suck fuel from the cell. The pump is mounted below the tank, so it’s gravity fed, but maybe not getting enough fuel.

I decided I’m going to mount a pump inside the cell in the ATL trap door box thing, so that should fix the problem. Also have a spare pump, so I’ll try that out and see if maybe it’s just a bad pump… but I doubt it.